Football in Canada/USA

Lol I agree that football makes more sense to refer to soccer. But still, Canada/USA still calls "handegg" football

for one thing, in the olden days of handegg there was a lot more foot-play than there is now...

I would imagine so; punting is still there..

kickoffs, punting and field goals are still prevelent.

the drop kick is all but extinct, despite doug flutie's solo attempt at reviving it.
(wikipedia)

Ah yes Doug Flutie. Known on both sides of the border.
Interesting. I guess we should rename football haha

Football is a misnomer for a game that is played 99% with the hands.
Soccer would sound strange if it was called handball.

Each NFL player sees about six minutes of action per game. The rest of the time he stands around or sits on a bench.
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According to a Wall Street Journal study of four recent broadcasts, and similar estimates by researchers, the average amount of time the ball is in play on the field during an NFL game is about 11 minutes.
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704281204575002852055561406.html

The American and Canadian games grew out of what is sometimes referred to as Rugby football. This game evolved on the North American continent in different ways than it did in England, and in England, what North Americans call soccer and the game of Rugby football both evolved from the game which was played at least as far back as the middle ages, and probably longer ago than that.

In the 1870s, McGill University in Montréal played Harvard University of Massachusetts, and they agreed to play by "Harvard rules." Those rules were an evolution of Rugby football (Rugby is a "Public School" in England, what would be called private school in North America). Since that time, the game evolved seperately in Canada and the United States, although both countries influenced each other in the devolopment of the game. The principle differences today are that in Canadian football the offensive team has three downs (three attempts) to gain ten yards, and there are four downs in the American game--meaning that the passing game has become more important in Canada. The Canadian field is ten yards longer than the American field, and there is a slight difference in scoring successful field goal attempts.

Rugby football itself was a departure from what North Americans call soccer, which may have been introduced into Britain by the Romans. The game was given a set of written rules in England by Eton College (once again, what Americans would call a private secondary school) early in the 19th century, and then those rules were standardized by what were known as Cambridge rules. At Rugby, in the 18th century, players were allowed to handle the ball, but not to run toward the opposing goal with the ball in one's hands. Then in the 19th century, written rules for "Rugby football" allowed players to run toward the opposing goal with the ball in the player's hands. American, Canadian and Australian football, the first two slightly different but otherwise similar games, and the third significantly different, all developed from Rugby football. In North America, universities in what is now called the Ivy League adopted the Harvard Rules, which were altered slightly in negotiations with McGill in 1876, and from which the Canadian and American games evolved.

Might be worth adding as a footnote to Set's piece, that in England we had the two games, Rugby Football and, following the formation of the Football Association and the making of codified rules, Association Football.

Rugby was called "rugger" and the other was called "soccer", following the fashion of the period. "Soccer" is just a contraction of the word "association".

I took the NFL about four decades to learn how to kick a football properly. A college kid born in Hungary showed them how it's done.

Well now, that's interesting. I hadn't known that . . .

Thank you for sharing the answer.